Big bank whistleblower turns down reward worth millions

A former Deutsche Bank employee has turned down his share of a $16.5 million whistleblower award to protest a lack of punishment for the bank's top executives.

Eric Ben-Artzi, a former risk officer, is in line for the major payout after warning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Deutsche Bank(DB) had inflated the value of its portfolio of exotic credit derivatives during the financial crisis.

It was a good tip: In May 2015, the SEC charged the bank with filing misstated financial reports and failing to take into account billions of dollars in potential losses. Deutsche agreed to pay $55 million to settle the charges.

The SEC sometimes provides financial rewards to whistleblowers. In this case, Ben-Artzi and two colleagues are now in line for $16.5 million.

But the former banker, who is now vice president of risk analytics at BondIT, is angry that the fine was imposed on Deutsche's shareholders, and not the managers responsible for the scandal.